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Opera, June 2007

Inkle & Yarico

Opera East at Magdalene College, Cambridge, February 16

Within four years of its première at the Little Theatre, Haymarket in August 1787, Colman’s and Arnold’s Inkle and Yarico had been produced as far afield as New York, Philadelphia, Jamaica and Calcutta; in London it would hold the stage for half a century. Yet if it is still remembered at all today, it is only for its status as the first ‘anti-slavery opera’. Hence the appearance of this highly entertaining revival, staged at the conclusion of a day-long conference to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade.

Is the work of more than historical interest? The music is certainly unflaggingly tuneful, but is rarely the main focus, serving predominantly to break up the action. The drama meanwhile, though advertised here as semi-staged (with scenery provided by projected images) was fully and funnily acted, mixing strong debate with engagingly witty banter. And the inclusion of some more extended musical pieces – such as the Guyanan princess Yarico’s meditation on nature, ‘Sweet bird’ (long a successful piece in its own right and finely sung on this occasion by Joana Thomé) – provided some room for vocal display.

Despite (or perhaps because of) the work’s erstwhile popularity, no surviving edition of it includes all the various musical numbers, or corresponds precisely to a single production. So for the purposes of this revival, Richard Luckett pieced together all the surviving material before cutting it down to a playable version, dispensing with surplus characters and dialogue, and reducing the three-act original to a more compact two.

 

The result was occasionally patchwork in character, but in a way that fitted in entirely with the pasticcio norm of the time, lending a credibly late-eighteenth century aura to the performance; this was only strengthened by the contribution of the audience, whether offering audible disapproval of any pro-slavery speeches or spontaneous applause after Andrew Wicken’s virtuosically hammy rendition of Sir Christopher Curry’s grand excoriation of the merchant Thomas Inkle.

Unusually, this is a piece in which the middle classes, exemplified by Inkle, come off worst, assailed for their unethical commercial instincts by both servants and superiors, and Inkle’s last-minute decision to marry – rather than sell – Yarico (browbeaten by Sir Christopher’s outburst) hardly rescues the character and his class from opprobrium. At times, however, the temptation to play for laughs, combined with the evident enjoyment of the audience, risked closing the historical gap between 18th-century opera and modern pantomime so completely that some of the more uncomfortable or provocative sentiments in the script (such as the Irish maid Patty, strongly characterized by Ilana Jacobs) were treated as nothing other than more light relief. As a result, genuine insights about the nature of the debate over slavery or the attitudes to interracial marriage in the 1780s tended to be obscured. But this was perhaps a small price to pay for such a spirited operatic resurrection, generated above all by the strength of individual performances. Most notable here was Andrew Staples as a pugnaciously good-hearted and thoroughly believable Trudge, manservant to Inkle, whose own romance with Yarico’s maid Wowsky (Donna Bateman) provides a happy alternative to his master’s machinations. The small orchestral forces played with consistent verve under the confident and stylish direction of Oliver Gooch.

Benjamin Walton

Opera, September 2007

The Rake’s Progress

Opera East at Iford Festival, June 29

Gauging the operas that will work in Iford’s miniscule space is an art in itself. In this instance, the natural affinity between the Italianate setting and Stravinsky’s neo-Classical score was apparent; moreover, the clarity with which the vocal and instrumental lines were defined was often revelatory. The conductor Oliver Gooch certainly revealed himself as a Stravinsky interpreter of real insight.

The respect accorded both William Hogarth, whose paintings first inspired Stravinsky, and the librettist WH Auden in his centenary year was also significant. The director Jeff Clarke and his clever designer Gabriella Csanyi-Wills managed to retain much of the spirit and feel of the 18th century whilst incorporating elements of the 1950s (The Rake’s Progress was first performed in 1951) as well as of the present. Periodic posturing for digital and video cameras offered a modern equivalent of Hogarth; Bedlam became a cybercafé, where the zombie-like escape into virtual reality. This was an uncomfortably telling parallel, fulfilling the essential requirement that a morality tale should pertain to any and every era.

Yet it was Clarke’s reflection of the Jungian slant of Auden’s libretto (written with Chester Kallman) that brought such a strong psychological truth to this production. Instead of a Shadow whose presence is satanic and physically overbearing, Daniel Grice matched Peter Wilman’s Tom in height and build; by their being dressed identically, the idea of an internal demon was forcefully suggested.

 

Grice proved himself to be a singer of considerable stature, implying the insinuating charms of Nick as well as his darkly sinister power most convincingly. Wilman may not have been in the same league as Grice in what is anyway a hugely taxing role, but he touchingly conveyed Tom’s gullibility and, even as his money disappeared, sympathy accrued steadily thanks to the deeply genuine expressions of his love for Anne. By the time it was translated into Adonis’s love for Venus, it was heart-rending. Revecca van den Berg’s Anne Truelove was impressive; always in control and movingly sung. Louise Crane’s Mother Goose was strong, carrying the pantomime flamboyance of the character while also suggesting that this tart still has a beating heart. Deborah Hawksley’s Baba was extremely gutsy too and, since Iford operates with a skeleton staff, the fervour with which Crane and Hawkesley threw themselves into the multitude of other roles with the ensemble only added to the enjoyment of the evening.

The way in which, in the blink of an eye, the Iford cloiser’s central well became, among other things a carriage and then the basis of the bread-machine was amazing. But nothing outdid the frisson of excitement of the auction scene, with bids seeming to come from behind our shoulders and with the enthusiasm of Nicholas Smith’s auctioneer carrying a real charge. Wraparound sound doesn’t come better than this. Gooch’s handling both of his singers and players was admirable. The chamber-style instrumental line-up, with just one stringed instrument per part, risked being horribly exposed; instead it brought intimacy and transparency to the music. In this context, what is sometimes felt as the cloying self-consciousness of Stravinsky in neo-Classical mode took on an altogether more credible dimension.

Rian Evans

 

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